Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement is known as one of the most important times for African-American Literature.
The Black Arts movement is dated from 1960 to 1970, a decade of inspiration from very important Black figures such as Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovani, Zora Neal Hurston, and Ntozake Shange among others. This movement rooted from the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans wanted to express their interests in politics, discrimination, and racism as well as other things in a poetic way.
The Black Arts movement is dated from 1960 to 1970, a decade of inspiration from very important Black figures such as Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovani, Zora Neal Hurston, and Ntozake Shange among others. This movement rooted from the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans wanted to express their interests in politics, discrimination, and racism as well as other things in a poetic way.
"Dark Phrases" By Ntozake Shange
Poemdark phrases of womanhood
of never havin been a girl half-notes scattered without rhythm/ no tune distraught laughter fallin over a black girl's shoulder it's funny/ it's hysterical the melody-less-ness of her dance don't tell nobody don't tell a soul she's dancin on beer cans & shingles this must be the spook house another song with no singers lyrics/no voices & interrupted solos unseen performances are we ghouls? children of horror? the joke? don't tell nobody don't tell a soul are we animals? have we gone crazy? i can't hear anythin but maddening screams & the soft strains of death & you promised me you promised me... somebody/anybody sing a black girl's song bring her out to know herself to know you but sing her rhythms carin/struggle/hard times sing her song of life she's been dead so long closed in silence so long she doesn't know the sound of her own voice her infinite beauty she's half-notes scattered without rhythm/no tune sing her sighs sing the song of her possibilities sing a righteous gospel the makin of a melody let her be born let her be born & handled warmly. |
AnalysisDark Phrases by Ntozake Shange is an excerpt from the choreopoem/book "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf". "Dark Phrases" offers insight into a black girl's struggles in American. In the poem, the girl represents every black girl in this country that has grown up too fast because of tragic experiences that snatches the childhood away from a young girl. The girl has had all of her talents, dreams, and aspirations taken from her and this has caused her to close up and create a wall. She has been closed up so long, she doesn't know herself, her beauty, her talents, or what she can achieve. This poem is basically a "Crying out" The beginning is describing our struggles but by the end of the poem it is telling the reader or men essentially, that black girls are delicate and should be handled as such. It teaches us that black girls, all girls, should not be brought down, but brought out to know themselves.
Literary DevicesSeeing that "Dark Phrases" is a choreopoem it has A LOT of repetition. The poem is recited by six women in all different colors representing the black woman in america. There is also diction here, although it is not as strong as Shange's other poems, it's there. Oxymorons like "distraught laughter", Paradoxes like "Soft strains of death" and Hyperboles like "she's dancing on beer cans and shingles" also appear throughout the poem.
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